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The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is under fire once again for its lack of accountability and actual reformation. Time’s Up confronted the powerful group in charge of the Golden Globe Awards for their proposed changes, calling them “window-dressing platitudes.”
This comes on the heels of the current strike from a coalition of more than 100 publicity agencies that continue to withhold access to stars. By Friday evening on May 7, two of the awards season’s biggest power players — Netflix and Amazon Studios — also threatened to cut ties with the organisation until it goes further in its plan to remake itself. NBC, which has aired the Globes since 1996, said in a statement on Monday, May 10, that the network’s continued relationship with the HFPA was contingent on its “swift adoption and meaningful execution of the plan in its entirety.”
“Sadly, the list of ‘reforms’ adopted yesterday, and endorsed by NBCUniversal and Dick Clark Productions, are sorely lacking and hardly transformational,” Time’s Up President and Chief Executive Tina Tchen said in a statement.
“Instead, these measures ensure that the current membership of the HFPA will remain in the majority and that the next Golden Globes will be decided with the same fundamental problems that have existed for years.” Adding to the current demands of the HFPA, Netflix co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos issued a letter to the group’s leadership committee Thursday after its vote, saying the company will stop working with the organisation until more is done, Deadline reported . These major blasts to the organisation arise many questions on what next year’s award show will look like if there are no real steps toward changing their demographics.
Actress Scarlett Johansson is also joining in on the command for change within the HFPA. “As an actor promoting a film, one is expected to participate in awards season by attending press conferences as well as awards shows,” Johansson said in her statement.
“In the past, this has often meant facing sexist questions and remarks by certain HFPA members that bordered on sexual harassment. It is the exact reason why I, for many years, refused to participate in their conferences. The HFPA is an organisation that was legitimised by the likes of Harvey Weinstein to amass momentum for Academy recognition, and the industry followed suit. Unless there is necessary fundamental reform within the organisation, I believe it is time that we take a step back from the HFPA and focus on the importance and strength of unity within our unions and the industry as a whole.”
